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Monday, September 26, 2011

Queue Slayer #3

Prelude:

I wanted to do a little introduction here for a couple reasons. First, the blog has been seeing lots more action than ever before, so if you're new to Queue Slayer, welcome abroad. In short, it's an ongoing project where Jessie and myself (Brian) will each pick three DVDs, we'll watch all six on our own time, and then rank all the matches. A lot of the fun is even picking stuff out randomly from our huge collection of footage. A couple housekeeping notes, in the future, we'll just have one big list where we'll have combined our individual ones. Reason we didn't do that this time around is one disc inexplicably disappeared after I left it at Jessie's house so it would have skewed the results (him having not found/seen it). Also, I put our commentary before the ballots, not after, as there's a lot of numbers, matches, etc. to scroll through and didn't want some people bailing before they got to the meat of the article. We're plowing vigilantly through Queue Slayer #4 as I write this and it'll be up in a couple weeks featuring the more streamlined approach. Enjoy!

Our Thoughts:

Brian: AJW Big Egg Wrestling Universe was one of the biggest shows, not just in women's wrestling history, but in wrestling history period. You can read about its history and significance elsewhere but suffice to say its a legendary show. It was 8 discs and I plowed through them. The first chunk of the show is a little odd as there's lots of non-wrestling stuff, including amateur wrestling, kickboxing, etc. exhibitions. Some of that stuff reminded me of being young and sitting around my room and turning ESPN2 on and there being random sporting events that you'd just sort of watch as if nothing else the spirit of competition (in its myriad forms) is sometimes entertainment enough. Once the joshi starts up though there's no looking back and it's pretty solid from that point forward. The V*TOP WOMAN tournament in itself is worth the price of admission alone. Even without all the other stuff that eight-woman tournament was spectacular and could have been a great standalone show (better than any of the King of the Ring events for example). I liked Toyota vs. Kong and Hotta vs. Toyoda about equally, and hell, Kansai vs. Kong is right up there, too. The main event I felt didn't have the crowd support and was more clunky, you can account some of that for exhaustion (both of the competitors and crowd) but it just didn't blow me away like some of the earlier stuff.

Jess: This was absolutely part of my wrestling Bucket List, which can now be crossed off. There’s an ambiance to a massive show like this and I honestly wish something like this would be booked today. The assortment of different styles and matches early on made this feel like a very important show. I actually got into some of the amateur wrestling stuff and enjoyed that competition. The first few joshi matches were all good, whetting our appetite. The tag action on this show was particularly delightful. No one held back and it wasn’t like traditional tag team matches it was full on girl-girl action from bell to bell with some of the closest nearfalls these baby browns have viewed in a long ass time. The tournament goes almost without saying that it was epic. Having that Kong- Toyota match 1st round was a gamble as it blew away everything else in terms of athleticism and story but also in just destructive bumps. Kong brought it with all 3 opponents and I was pleasantly surprised by the finals after your softer review Brian even though I see you still adored it with a high spot on your list. Brilliant choice man, so glad we got to screen this.

Jessie: I first watched a BMD (Brian’s Mix Disc) which are basically like the old mix tapes and CD’s we youngens’ made in the 90’s but with wrestling. This particular one had 5 matches from a Best of Drake Younger comp some peddling mark video site made. What sticks out about this is how damn stiff Younger was and I loved his get in your face attitude. He took a plethora of nasty bumps in this, ranging from barb wire to tacks to carpet strips, you name it. My favorite was the only non-hardcore bout against Michael Elgin; if you want a better picture of him, read classic children’s fable “The 3 Billy Goats Gruff.” This was really good back and forth with some tight nearfalls and painful moves. It’s recommended. A CMLL TV ep also graced this disc which featured a really good main event that was slow in the beginning but picked up steam like an engine rolling through Tombstone, AZ in the late 1700’s. There was another 6 man on there, featuring unmasked Villano IV but featured little to like. Finally, Goto from NJPW beat up Okada in a fun but brief encounter, then Taka tried his hand at Worked Shoot style and excelled! I don’t think this match is for mass market consumption, but a handful of you amateur and MMA freaks will get down with it.

Brian: Yes, BMD, my beloved. CMLL TV was fun, I love lucha stylings, first six-man featuring Team No Limit from NJPW was good fun, heels went over strong in the first fall, but the "fuck finish" with the low blow by Black Warrior was a hinderance. The main was great, any time I get to see guys like Felino, Casas, Mistico, etc. doing their thing I'm pumped. The last couple matches from a Drake Younger comp. made it on here and were mostly quite good. The '08 CZW match vs. Brain Damage was grotesque, lots of squirting plasma from head wounds, etc. I also liked the Elgin match Jessie pimped, real snug, quite stiff, do peep that out, but my personal favorite was the wXw bout in some seedy German warehouse. Slater wasn't very smooth but the spots weren't showy set-pieces like the Brain Damage bloodletting, felt like a nasty fight and the weapons just added to the pain being dished out i.e. stuff like an atomic drop onto a parking cone, bumps onto a grocery cart, etc.

Jessie: WCW Saturday Night from 1994 episode really was a 1 match show, the classic Flair v. Steamboat war raged on here, in what has to be one of the few World Title matches ever shown on that program. It was an epic match, no doubt, going 40 minutes or so which makes it easy to compare and contrast to the Sting bout from this same program we reviewed on Que #1. This match’s technical superiorty towered above that one, with the nearfalls and quick exchanges between the two. We saw some repetitiveness here as well but it seemed everything meant just a little more. I really dug the ebb and flow of this thing too; you weren’t quite sure where it was going but you could see each guy ask for his turn to showcase his selling skills. The ending was botched here, just like in the Sting match but had nothing to do with interference, just bad positioning but I think the body of this is so strong it didn’t hurt it too bad. The other notable performance of this show belonged to Rick Rude who got ultra stiff with young Mr. Starr. A slap boxing match broke out and Rude kept on it just pummeling this kid in a beatdown I wouldn’t wish on Michael Bay, and I loathe him quite a bit.

Brian: I love me some WCWSN -- grew up watching that show religiously and is still one of my all-time favorite programs. I usually dig my a squash but found the lot here wholly uninteresting. The Rick Rude massacre of Mark Starr was a joy to behold, though, holy shit, man, that was vicious. Rude hit some of the nastiest punches on any WCW telecast from memory. The main event was great fun, Steamboat I thought actually looked a touch better than Ric, but both guys were in their element milking every hold and detail for all its worth. Finish was a little odd, felt cheap, Ricky shouldn't go down to an errant head to the groin but what do I know?

Brian: The other two selections I watched, at this point, almost two months ago so my recollection is a little foggier. The Pro Wrestling RIOT show was pretty bad. Usually, especially on that level of indy show, you'll get one or two fuck finishes but it seemed this whole event consisted of them. Just lots of crappy, cheap endings. I do warmly recall the Shane Twins spiking Sideshow's sister on her head in a gnarly table bump. I also liked Stevens and Davis' "Battle of the Bulls" bout. Then I choose an old WWE house show from Houston in '87. It was pretty par for the course but I enjoyed it, surprisingly the Prichard vs. Lewis match stuck out to me, maybe I'm alone in that regard, but I loved that, and being a big convert to Mid-South I also liked DiBiase vs. Duggan. Hogan vs. One Man Gang was Hulk formula tried and true but done expertly and I unplugged all cynicism and enjoyed that ride.

Jessie: I was looking forward to getting something so low rent and out of the normal scope of wrestling in here and Riot was good for that; but not for much else. The bulk of it was insulting, featuring guys I wouldn’t hardly call athletes, nonetheless trained pro wrestlers. The Shane Twins were like twin Juggernauts on this show and provided several highlights, the one Brian mentioned which was criminal at best and then throwing their one of their opponents in their tag match into the ceiling, breaking out the tiles above their heads. The Bulls match was fun, both guys seemed motivated and were working stiff but not eithers top shelf stuff. Now, the WWF show from Houston inexplicably has disappeared from my house; perhaps Mark Lewis heard there was a copy of that match and snuck in to relieve the greatest moment of his life, who knows but I am disappointed to not have seen it.

Jessie: My last pick was one of the first NOAH PPV broadcasts and features a jumbled card with mostly tag stuff. Overall, I was disappointed as this show didn’t have a lot I thought was good. Now, keep in mind, the first four matches were all clipped (damn shame because the Scorpio 3 way looked quite good) so it’s hard to judge too much. The semi-main was a tag bout mainly focused on Hash v. Misawa and they played their roles to perfection. The match was about a pecking order, so whenever Ogawa got in with Hash, Ogawa got a beatdown; when he mounted a comeback, it looked as if a huge underdog was getting over. Same with Misawa v. Otsuka. I actually enjoyed the storytelling here more so than the main event, which was just a big bump fest. Kobashi laid into Vader early on but I thought the structure of it was kind of a mess. Akiyama was looking to bump his way to a good score, taking some ramp spots and even though I did like it, it didn’t have the dynamic I was hoping was lurking at the end of this DVD.

Brian: This was a painful excursion. I love me some NOAH, was excited to see some older stuff, but this was clipped, poor quality, and just a cumbersome duty to sit through. There was Morishima singles that went to a 30-min. draw but we only got, like, 3 min. of it so who the hell knows if it was any good. Thought the finish to the semi-main was crap, Misawa who looked more brittle than some peanut brittle from Pigeon Forge, TN slid in and hit a Tiger Driver on Otsuka out of nowhere. The outsiders needed the heat here, I would have thought, and letting Hashimoto pin Ogawa to get a step closer to Mitsuharu would have been ideal and that's one of my gripes about NOAH is their predictable booking patterns. Kudos to Akiyama for the beastly bumps, though. I actually preferred the main as the finish wasn't a forgone conclusion and kept me glued to the MacBook screen (although that Vader moonsault was unsightly).